How many season ticket holders won't bother to turn up?

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

I'm buying a ticket for my 5 year old but he wont be able to go to all games, particuarly in the evenings. However the ridiculous policy of not making it easy to upgrade the seat to an adult means that unfortunately it will be left empty on occasion.

Surely this won't be an issue unless you're in the Family Stand, in which case you could upgrade his and move both tickets to another part of the ground for a particular game.

 

[Notters]

It's bloody annoying if the game is 'sold out', but there are empty seats. Does not make any sense in the slightest.

Exactly... and in 11 years at Withdean my seat has never been empty. Sometimes I've just had to give it away but obivously some people can't be arsed. Ok you'll still end up with a few empty seats but it should never be anything approaching 10%

 

[Rusthall Seagull]

I'm buying a ticket for my 5 year old but he wont be able to go to all games, particuarly in the evenings. However the ridiculous policy of not making it easy to upgrade the seat to an adult means that unfortunately it will be left empty on occasion.

what is the child upgrade policy ?

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

what is the child upgrade policy ?

Upgrading U10 tickets for evening games

 

[clippedgull]

hence why the TV cameras, will be facing the East Stand

There is a 1901 section in that stand too!!

 

[driller]

i bought two but will only go if we draw man u or stoke in the cup

 

[Stu1]

I've got one just as a status symbol! there will be games I'm going to miss being that a Tuesday night game in Brighton is quite hard to get to from Leeds but I will always find people to go in my place

 

[Codner pharmaceuticals]

Ah, sorry... I didn't mean to - I did say half the crowd. Just the 1901ers will have even better facilities and therefore more of an excuse.

If someone has to stand up and drink Harveys out of a plastic cup, surely they're less likely to stay in the concourse than someone who has it delivered to them on a silver platter, with no queuing, even if it's the same person.

So can I rely on you to drop some Harveys off on Saturday? My butler has the day off.

 

[portlock seagull]

Aren't you the chap that would rather leave his seat empty than donate his ticket to someone, though? Can't imagine most people take that view. I'd certainly rather give my ticket away than leave the seat empty, if there's a facility to do so.

Do you know what a nightmare moving tickets on can be though if you're not in close proximity to others? I and a group of mates have donated thousands to the club effectively down the years we've been at withdean. Think anyone who doesn't get why sold out games have empty seats is frankly a bit thick.

 

[Shanker45]

For me deciding to buy a season ticket for next season was a no brainer. Never had one before but felt I deserved one now for supporting the Albion through thick and thin for the last 25+ years ( attend home and away games as often as can) and just wanted to be there at Falmer to experience the sheer joy of watching the Albion play at a world class stadium.

The season ticket guarantees me entry to every game I am able to attend but I won't be there for all - does that make me a bad fan?

I do agree that it's a shame we haven't got an easy scheme for ensuring that other fans can attend in my place if I am unable to go.

 

[Notters]

Do you know what a nightmare moving tickets on can be though if you're not in close proximity to others? I and a group of mates have donated thousands to the club effectively down the years we've been at withdean. Think anyone who doesn't get why sold out games have empty seats is frankly a bit thick.

No I don't, having done it dozens of time and never having a problem...

 

[sully]

It's bloody annoying if the game is 'sold out', but there are empty seats. Does not make any sense in the slightest.

The thing is that the club have all the money they're going to get once it's sold out.

Why would they set something up that enables people to swap tickets about unless it's going to bring them extra revenue?

Once we're at Falmer, it may not be the case that most games sell out (particularly after the first few), so they would then actually be reducing their income by providing the facility.

I still think they should provide some form of ticket exchange, though.

 

[Notters]

The thing is that the club have all the money they're going to get once it's sold out.

Food, beer, programmes, merchandise? Plus the fact that the bigger the crowd, the more likely the team is to win... this is statistically proven.

Plus it's an opportunity to get new fans into the club who could spend £1000s over the years.

 

[pasty]

I know someone who will be out of the country until at least the 2012/13 season who is thinking of buying a season ticket for next season - on the grounds that the monthly instalments are so affordable he'll barely notice them.

How many other fans are buying season tickets with the same thinking - knowing, like Bozza for example, that they will miss some (maybe most) matches? "Hell, it's only half a tank of fuel each month, I might as well ..."

A mate of mine lives in Chester and has bought one. He even has one for THIS season specifically to get himself a bit priority for buying next seasons - he's been to one league game this season! Bit of a pisser that though as because of the +3 thing he really didn't to, but we didn't know about that back then.

 

[sully]

A mate of mine lives in Chester and has bought one. He even has one for THIS season specifically to get himself a bit priority for buying next seasons - he's been to one league game this season! Bit of a pisser that though as because of the +3 thing he really didn't to, but we didn't know about that back then.

I'm struggling to understand the point of him having a season ticket.

 

[Brovion]

The thing is that the club have all the money they're going to get once it's sold out.

Why would they set something up that enables people to swap tickets about unless it's going to bring them extra revenue?

Once we're at Falmer, it may not be the case that most games sell out (particularly after the first few), so they would then actually be reducing their income by providing the facility.

I still think they should provide some form of ticket exchange, though.

It would actually be possible for the club to set up a system to re-sell the tickets thus generating extra income and cutting down on no-shows. It could work like this:

1 - A STH tells the club they won't be attending match x. They do this by using their fan number (or whatever) via an on-line system or an automated telephone system.

2 - The club's database marks that seat as being available for resale for that game only, and at the same time invalidates the STH's smart card for that match so they can't use it.

3 - The club then re-sells the individual ticket as a one-off.

Under this scheme the club have sold the seat twice and made a lot of money! It's therefore now in their interests to get STH's to return individual match tickets as often as possible. To encourage STHs to do this it could be possible to give them a credit, say £5 per ticket (if it's successfully resold), to their 'cashless' account. It's really not rocket science, but it does assume that the club's ticketing and IT infrastructure are finally going to be upgraded to 21st century levels, otherwise forget it.

 

[8ace]

A mate of mine lives in Chester and has bought one. He even has one for THIS season specifically to get himself a bit priority for buying next seasons - he's been to one league game this season! Bit of a pisser that though as because of the +3 thing he really didn't to, but we didn't know about that back then.

I wonder how many more people have done something similar and are part of the missing STHs every sold-out home game? (Not having a go BTW)

 

[pasty]

I'm struggling to understand the point of him having a season ticket.

Next season he will making far more journeys down to see us

I wonder how many more people have done something similar and are part of the missing STHs every sold-out home game? (Not having a go BTW)

Never in this case as his ticket has been used every match so far.

 

[beorhthelm]

so far it seems widely accepted... no expected that people will do this. i'm really rather surprised.

 

[poidy]

It would actually be possible for the club to set up a system to re-sell the tickets thus generating extra income and cutting down on no-shows. It could work like this:

1 - A STH tells the club they won't be attending match x. They do this by using their fan number (or whatever) via an on-line system or an automated telephone system.

2 - The club's database marks that seat as being available for resale for that game only, and at the same time invalidates the STH's smart card for that match so they can't use it.

3 - The club then re-sells the individual ticket as a one-off.

Under this scheme the club have sold the seat twice and made a lot of money! It's therefore now in their interests to get STH's to return individual match tickets as often as possible. To encourage STHs to do this it could be possible to give them a credit, say £5 per ticket (if it's successfully resold), to their 'cashless' account. It's really not rocket science, but it does assume that the club's ticketing and IT infrastructure are finally going to be upgraded to 21st century levels, otherwise forget it.

I like this idea a lot. The ticket gets re-sold to a happy fan, the club get the extra revenue and the season ticket holder gets a couple of quid back. Everyones a winner.

Personally due to my job and my location i will only be able to attend half of our home games at best. Considerably less than this if i get deployed overseas for 4 months right in the middle of a season. In this instance it would be good if the club considered some sort of buy back scheme to cover that 4 month period given the money they would make from reselling my tickets. 10% of what profit the club makes or something like that anyway.